Honest debate needed on college debt issue

Published June 25. 2014 12:01AM

Dave Falvey Groton

I'm responding to a guest editorial, "Student loan relief," (June 11) - which appeared on Bloomberg View - and provided a totally pompous and arrogant version of Wall Street's take on student loans. Wall Street is the beneficiary of a student loan bubble and no one except Rep. Joe Courtney is crying, "Wolf!"

Student Loan debt is $1.08 trillion, which is more than all the outstanding credit card debt of $854.2 billion, itself nothing to sneeze at.

Student loans were once dischargeable in bankruptcy, but thanks to President Bill Clinton (champion of the poor?) it is now next to impossible to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy.

Rep. Courtney is aware of this problem and has proposed HR523, the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2013.

No where in the guest editorial was this legislation discussed. The editorial merely recited the Wall Street position on student loans, which is the next major financial crisis due to the securitization of student loans. Does this sound familiar?

I double-dog dare The Day to engage readership on student loan debt and act as a community sounding board to coordinate a discussion of the topic.